This invention relates generally to information retrieval. More specifically, the invention relates to computer-readable media, systems, and methods of consolidating information retrieval results.
Information retrieval, generally speaking, is commonly-used among researchers and consumers of information to obtain information from one or more databases. This typically involves a user submitting a query, which is then used by a information retrieval system to pull results from the one or more databases and report the results base to the user. The popularity of the Internet has caused such information retrieval and information retrieval systems to become common even among ordinary Internet users.
Despite their popularity, information retrieval systems do not always present search results to a user an efficient format, which can become a burden to the user. For example, consider FIG. 1A. FIG. 1A is an image of search results provided in a typical format. In this format, each distinct related data point is listed separately, often times interspersed with unrelated data. FIG. 1B, shows another image of search results, demonstrating an alternative approach to displaying search results. In this instance, each distinct related data point is clustered together as a list of related data. Although this latter approach may be considered more efficient in some aspects, it is still prone to the problems of displaying redundant data points.
This invention serves to reduce the amount of redundancies found in information retrieval results and provide a more efficient display of related data elements, among other purposes.